Sussex have handed Ishant Sharma his county cap.

Ben Brown did the honours ahead of the Championship match with Kent, which started this morning.

The Sussex skipper praised the standards Ishant has set during his short-term stint at the club.

He is playing his final four-dayer for Sussex but will remain for the group stage of the Royal London One-Day Cup.

Sussex are chasing a second successive Championship win and had Kent 97-2 at lunch after asking the hosts to bat first.

Brown spoke to team-mates ahead of play.

He said: “It is a very special moment today. We have had Ishan for a few weeks now, it’s his last red-ball game.

“When we thought about the capping system, myself and Dizzy (head coach Jason Gillespie) spoke about overseas players living to the sort of standards we wanted at the dlub.

“As a senior player and a guy who sets the bar so high for us, we have all learnt from you and the way you go about it. It is my pleasure to cap you today.”

Despite losing two wickets in the 31-over first session, Kent rebuilt through Kolpak signing Heino Kuhn (44 not out) and acting skipper Joe Denly (14 not out), who added an unbroken 47 for the third wicket through to the break.

Bowling first after an uncontested toss, Sussex broke through after only 5.2 overs when opener Daniel Bell-Drummond (13) shouldered arms to an Ollie Robinson off-cutter that uprooted the right-hander’s off stump.

The hosts had 50 on the board when Sean Dickson (10) went back and worked across the line of a rising delivery from David Wiese to be adjudged lbw by umpire Russell Warren.